Don’t forget art—to rejuvenate us, to make us believe, to remind us of the power of love, and its mystery, remaining, thank god, always!
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| Louis Sullivan's striking design for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition's Transportation Building featured a polychromatic façade and majestic “Golden Door” entrance on the east side. [Source: ICHi-52341. Chicago History Museum. Reproduction of illustration, artist C. Graham. Date: 1893] |
Politics has always been a mess, and dominated by the greedy, the corrupt, the incompetent.
On December 30, 1903 in the afternoon 575 people – hundreds of young children and their mothers who had come to see Eddie Foy in a holiday matinee – died when flames, fumes, smoke and explosions rocketed from the stage of the Iroquois Theatre. Then a thin blue mist and great volumes of grey cloud engulfed the audience. Many died in their seats, others were trampled on their way to the exits.
The Mayor, the second Carter Harrison elected in 1897, was arrested and held to answer when it was discovered that the City Commissioner of Buildings had not inspected the building or enforced regulations regarding the fire escapes and extinguishers. The Commission had the authority to direct the Fire Department to tear down a dangerous and defective building.
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| Firemen spraying water at the Iroquois Theater building during the fire. View of firemen spraying water up at the Iroquois Theater building in Chicago, Illinois, during the fire. Other firemen are standing nearby. [Source: Date: DN-0001584, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum. 1903 Dec. 30] |
I fled New York City, to escape my deranged and violent husband, Lazare Wischnewetzky, with my three children, Nicholas, my beloved Margaret, and John. I borrowed money for the train fare from a young woman who worked as a governess, and escaped in the middle of the night secretly, on my way to Chicago, where I became a new person, Mrs. Florence Kelley, Henry Demarest Lloyd and his wife, the beautiful Jesse Brosse Lloyd said: Of course we will take the children. The children will live with us. And I went to Hull House. Just like that, a spontaneous act of generosity. That was the kind of people they were. Jesse Brosse Lloyd was disowned by her own father when her husband wrote a letter in support of the Haymarket anarchists. Haymarket was the symbol of rebellion, too soon after the Civil War to be forgotten.
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| When Henry Demarest Lloyd came to Chicago, he was a recent graduate of Columbia University, a lawyer, a poet, and he took the town by storm with his brilliance, his erudition, and his passion for justice. Before long he was the literary editor and then the very well respected financial editor of The Chicago Tribune. [Source: Puublic domain. H29628 U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress] |
Every day the sun is shining is a good day, a good day to be alive. Remember that, to be alive! To pick up a pen is an act of hope. Write something. Of course if you write it down, you hope someone will read it.
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| In December of 1897, Florence Kelley found herself working as a part time librarian for the John Crerar Library, a special reference collection established by the estate of John Crerar, after being unexpectedly fired as Chief Factory Inspector in August of 1897. [Photo: 1925. Source: Unknown. Creative Commons License] |
You don’t have to scare anyone, or everyone. Just stare a man down, shame the man who is doing the bad thing, who is saying: No, you can’t do this, this good thing. And at the end of the day, we don’t have trouble recognizing what that is.
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| Playing in an empty lot at 45th and Laflin. Description: Playing in an empty lot at 45th and Laflin; Chicago, IL. [Source: ICHi-31535. Chicago History Museum. Reproduction of photographic print, photographer unknown] |
Every day you open your eyes, and see the world around you, a miracle has happened. And if the sun is shining, that is two miracles that have happened. In a minute.
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| Looking south, Administration Building from Wooded Isle Bridge; World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, IL. [Source: ICHi-25087. Chicago History Museum. Reproduction of photographic print, photographer ?. Date: 1893.] |
You must try. Try to imagine a better world. Six impossible things before breakfast, then take one small step towards making one happen.
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| Whiskey Row, near Union Stockyards. Description: Whiskey Row, near Union Stockyards; Chicago, IL. [Source: ICHi-13188. Chicago History Museum. Reproduction of postcard, printer - V O Hammon Publishing Company.] |
Florence Kelley Live from 1890s Chicago: Fail. Fail again. Fail Better. Fail differently. Let everyone see you are failing. Failing to get rid of the sweatshops and how wrong they are. How Godless.
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| Sweatshop. circa 1900. [Source/permission: Kheel Center, Cornell University] |
Florence Kelley Live from 1890s Chicago: And Yet, and yet. We must continue. In spite of our pride, our greed, our stupidity, our repeated mistakes. We must go on.
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| On 24 April 2013, Rana Plaza, an eight-story commercial building, collapsed in Savar, a sub-district in the Greater Dhaka Area, the capital of Bangladesh. The search for the dead ended on 13 May with a death toll of 1,129. Approximately 2,515 injured people were rescued from the building alive. [Source: Wikimedia Creative Commons] |
Florence Kelley Live from 1890s Chicago: I never was afraid for myself. For my safety. Though sometimes people shouted at me, or shouted me down. They made way for me, as I walked past.
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| Troops camped by Court House, Railroad Strike of 1894, Chicago, IL. Source: ICHi-22888. Reproduction of photographic print, photographer unknown. Date: 1894. |
Florence Kelley Live from 1890s Chicago: Don’t think tomorrow. Don’t even think this afternoon. Today is all we have. Today, no yesterday, to tomorrow. Today. Can I do one useful thing today?
[Source/credit: Photo by Rubenstein. Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University]
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| "If you don't come in Sunday, don't come in Monday." Back cover image for Florence Kelley Factory Inspector in 1890s Chicago and the children |
We knew cold winters in Chicago then. No 60 degrees in February. When I needed a coat, I borrowed one. When I went to court, or to the legislature, I borrowed a proper silk dress, which rustled when we marched, and when we entered into a silent room, a room where people were waiting for us. And a hat. I borrowed a hat to help keep the warmth inside, and to help me hold my head high.
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| Image of men walking on the partially frozen ice of Lake Michigan, with a steamship or tugboat in the background, in Chicago, Illinois. DN-0001833, Chicago Daily News negative collections, Chicago History Museum |
After the Law was passed we got one 12-year old girl, Rebecca, unchained from a sewing machine. We washed her face and her hair; and took her to learn how to read at the Jewish Training School. It was enough for one day.
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| Sewing class in 1892 at the Jewish Manual Training School in Chicago. Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society |
People still pouring into Chicago from all over the world, believing they can find something to do here, find food and shelter for their families here. They have always come here, to our City, a beacon of crazy hope.
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| View from Auditorium Tower. Description: View from Auditorium Tower, Chicago, IL. [Source: ICHi-52235. Chicago History Museum. Reproduction of photographic print. Photographer - J. W. Taylor. Date: 1890] |
Play the long game. When knocked down, get up to fight another day. Maybe the same fight, maybe a different, better fight.
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| Women and children picking up spilled coal off the ground near a row of horse-drawn carts in a lot in Chicago, Illinois. [Source: DN-0000505, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum. Date: ca. 1903] |
The Ferris Wheel, from the World's Columbian Exposition still here, changed cars, changed locations. People still want to ride on high and see Chicago stretched out at their feet. Yes, you can. Come to Chicago and ride the Ferris Wheel, look at the sprawl, the dirt, the lights from 200 feet up. Then, go out, find your spot, and make a difference somewhere there.
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| Original Ferris Wheel at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. Although the original Ferris Wheel was demolished, a new wheel lives on in Chicago at Navy Pier in Chicago, with structural similarities and inspiration from Ferris's original wheel. [Source: Wikipedia, Chicago Tribune] |
Nothing happened quickly. So many opposed to everything we stood up for. Said:
They would have to shut down the biggest glass works in the State, if they couldn’t bring seven year old boys from the orphanage to be Blowers’ Dogs.
The name says it all.
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| Glass Blower and Mold Boy. Boy has 4 1/2 hours of this at a stretch, then an hour's rest and 4 1/2 more: cramped position. Day shift one week: night shift next. (see label on photo 162.) Grafton, West Virginia. Photographer: Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940 |
Florence Kelley speaking, live from 1890s Chicago
How weary the sun must be of us, our whining, our complaining. The sky, the air, our Lake, our dreams. Look for joy. You will find it.
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| Union stockyards from 'Views of Chicago and Vicinity.' pic 1 Description: Union stockyards from 'Views of Chicago and Vicinity;' Chicago, IL. Source: ICHi-52216. Reproduction of photomechanical print, printer unknown. Date: 1890-1899. |